Under the onslaught of political correctness, numbing
education, fake mainstream news, and other covert techniques, an attack
on language is taking place.

Anyone who hasn't been living in a cave can see this.

The solution is: go the other way.

Refuse to back down. Refuse the pressure to shrink language.

Reject the attempt to shrink formal argument and logic to
slogans and mottos and vague generalities. If necessary, educate your
own children. Teach them English and literature and logic. Thus, make
them smarter, not dumber.

Expand their capacity to use language.

Large numbers of people are heading deeper into idiocracy,
but this is no reason to abandon the quest for greater intelligence.
This is no reason to despair. Life is not a search for the lowest common
denominator. Others may think so, but you don't have to.

In my 12 years of formal education, the smartest thing I did
was enroll in two college courses in logic. The professor was a
brilliant hair-splitter. He could discern the differences between any
two hairs you might offer up. As a result, his students sharpened their
minds into well-made swords. The practical real-world effects weren't
immediately obvious, but as time passed, I could certainly see the
benefits. For starters, I could distinguish between fake and real
analysis of information. The fake brand was replete with generalities
and obfuscations.

Great numbers of people buy the fake brand. So be it.

Why join the crowd?

Deciding that a whole host of words and phrases are "hate
speech" makes people dumber. Makes them less, not more, tolerant. Makes
them resemble machines. If they can't understand that, so be it.

An invisible trend is developing in society. A significant
number of people who have minds and know how to use them are removing
themselves from the common swamp. By their capacity and merit, they are
constituting a natural elite.

And by rejecting sophistry, they are rising to new heights.

They are literate, in the best sense of the word.

In my collection, The Matrix Revealed, I offer a basic
18-lesson course in logic. In another collection, Power Outside The
Matrix, I present a long audio section titled, Analyzing Information in
the Age of Disinformation. These are contributions to an emerging future
in which the individual controls the destiny of his own mind.

He doesn't aim to fit in. He goes the other way. He bucks the trend.

All propaganda targets the group, the mass, the collective.
An individual who doesn't join up needs every possible tool, in order to
stay independent.

If you don't think so, consider current trends in illiteracy,
non-logic, propaganda, political correctness---and project what the
cultural landscape will look like in 20 years. It's not a pretty
picture.

Institutions of higher learning?

You are the institution.

You're the president, the dean, the basic faculty, and the
student of higher learning. You're carrying on the tradition of Socrates
and Aristotle. You're putting up "mind vs. mob." You're the herald of a
victory most people can't fathom.

From the intellectual rubble of a declining civilization,
you're carrying the basics on which civilization is built. You're not
waiting for others to catch up. You're showing the way.

The word "education" comes from Latin roots. "Ducere," to
lead, and "e" or "ex," meaning "from" or "out of." Education is a
process of leading an inherent capacity out of the student into the
light. That capacity is based on rational thought, logic, and expanded
(not shrunken) language.

Education is real. It means what it has always meant.

It can be defamed, twisted, distorted, perverted, reduced, stepped on---but it endures. The desire for it never disappears.

It needs independent individuals who are teachers. Such
teachers don't shirk their mission. They find glory in it. They don't
make excuses. If one venue doesn't work, they find another. Their
passion shines.

The
author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM
THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US
Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a
consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the
expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he
has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles
on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin
Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and
Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics,
health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world.